(born 1943) Civil rights activist turned militant who succeeded Stokely Carmichael as the chairperson of SNCC in 1967. Brown continued to radicalize the organization, building on Carmichael’s call for Black Power and rejecting non-violence as a viable method of protest. Claiming that “violence is as American as apple pie,” he believed that the movement should respond in kind, and changed SNCC’s name to the Student National Coordinating Committee. Charged with carrying firearms across state lines, he skipped bail and was captured after a gun battle with police in 1972. In prison Brown adopted the Muslim faith and the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, and after parole from prison moved to Atlanta, where he later ran afoul of police.